Government Wiretapping Online

Government Wants to Be Able to Tap Online Communication

In last night's Mad Men episode, Betty gets a surprise visit from the Department of Defense, who are investigating a certain ex-husband who isn't who he says he is. When she calls Don to tell him the news, they suddenly realize that the phone line could be tapped, and their conversation turns humorously stilted as they try to keep things as nonincriminating as possible. But 50 years later, who even has a house phone line to tap anymore? The US government knows that the answer is not a lot, so it has proposed a new bill that tries to make it easier for the feds to wiretap electronic communication.

Get all the details on the proposal after the break.

This would mean that every Facebook, email, instant messaging, and other online communication we do on a daily basis must be able to be surveyed by the government if needed. The proposed bill coincides with a 1994 law already on the books for cell phone and broadband networks but would make it a mandate for other providers of electronic communication, including peer-to-peer software like Skype. This could mean a major technology overhaul for some companies and developers, since both domestic and foreign providers who have business in the US would have to make sure that their encrypted data could be unscrambled for the government if needed.

I'm not sure yet where I fall on this issue. On one hand, the mandate seems merely like a much-needed update to an old law that helps the government find criminals and thwart terrorism, but on the other hand, the ability to unencrypt data could open us up to hacking and undesirable monitoring. What do you think of the bill, which is slated to be submitted next year? Too much Big Brother, or a needed avenue for fighting crime?

Speaking on behalf of the GNU Telephony project, we do intend to openly defy such a law should it actually come to pass, so I want to be very clear on this statement. It is not simply that we will choose to publicly defy the imposition of such an illegitimate law, but that we will explicitly continue to publicly develop and distribute free software (that is software that offers the freedom to use, inspect, and modify) enabling secure peer-to-peer communication privacy through encryption that is made available directly to anyone worldwide. Clearly such software is especially needed in those places, such as in the United States, where basic human freedoms and personal dignity seem most threatened.
In the United States the 4th amendment did not come about simply because it was impractical to directly spy on everyone on such a large scale. Nor does it end simply because it may now be technically feasible to do so. Communication privacy furthermore is essential to the normal functioning of free societies, whether speaking of whistle-blowers, journalists who have to protect their sources, human rights and peace activists engaging in legitimate political dissent, workers engaged in union organizing, or lawyers who must protect the confidentiality of their privileged communications with clients.
However, to fully appreciate the effect of such surveillance on human societies, imagine being among several hundred million people who wake up each day having to prove they are not a “terrorist” by whatever arbitrary means the government has decided to both define the terms of such a crime and whatever arbitrary methods unknown to you that they might choose to define you as such, and where even your prosecution is carried out under the immunity of “state secrets” that all police states use to abuse of their own citizens. Such a society is one who’s very foundation is built on the premise of everyone being guilty until proven innocent and where due process does not exist. It is the imposition of such a illegitimate society that we choose to openly oppose, and to do so in this manner.
David Alexander Sugar
Chief Facilitator
GNU Telephony﻿